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Το μοιρολόι της Παναγιάς (Κύπρος)
O gentlefolk, pay heed to me, and hear the Mother’s dirge,
hear how she mourns her only child upon the yonder Cross.
Take note of tidings dark as night, a day that’s drear and sobre,
today has sore afflicted me, and left me deeply grieving.
They took away my only son, and I am desolated,
the people cry to heaven above, the earth has darkened over.
The sun is hid behind a cloud, and gloom has banished daylight,
the moon that moves across the sky is sulky and embittered.
O mountains heave with heavy sighs and boulders split asunder,
and river waters drain away, and trees be parched and wither.
…
Translated by John Leatham
Άρκοντες αφικράστε μου της Δέσποινας τον θρήνον,
πώς κλαίει τον μονογενή εις τον Σταυρόν εκείνον.
Αδέ μαντάτο σκοτεινόν και μέρα λυπημένη
που ήρτε σήμερον σ’ εμέ, την πολοπικραμένη.
Που πιάσαν τον Υιούλην μου κι έμεινα ορφανεμένη
κι ο κόσμος κλαίει ουρανέ κι η γη σκοτεινασμένη.
Ο ήλιος εσκοτίστηκεν κι όλον το φως εχάθη
και το φεγγάριν τ’ ουρανού κατά πολλά επικράνθη.
Όρη αναστενάξετε και πέτρες ραϊστείτε
και ποταμοί στραγγίσετε και δένδρα μαραθείτε.
...
The Moirolóϊ or Lament of the Virgin, very widely known throughout Creek lamb, is a long medieval rhyming poem of literary origin, but impressively familiar to broad sections of the populace. Influenced by relevant passages in the Gospels and by Church hymnography, it is an anthropocentric narrative lament for the sufferings of Christ on the way to his crucifixion and death, as observed through the eyes and felt by his tragic mother. Chanted by women around Christ’s tomb in the manner and style of the mundane dirges they know so well, it expresses their compassion and identification with the maternal, human nature of the Virgin. Nonetheless, the. way in which it is ritually performed lays bare the custom’s pre-Christian origins.
While there are local differences in some features of the song or in its melodic treatment, the structure and form of the moirolóϊ as well as its performance bear impressive .similarities to those sung in lands as far apart as Lower Italy, Pontus, and Cyprus. The continuity of its narrative flow is clearly evinced in the sequence we have dared to select here of passages occurring in versions of varied provenance. Miranda Terzopoulou (1998)
Studio recording, 1997.
Domna Samiou learned the Cyprus version from the Cypriot Christos Sikkis, in 1983.
Singers
